Dennis Hicks joined the Brandeis community last Monday as the director of the Department of Student Activities.

Hicks has worked in higher education for the last 17 years and also has experience in graphic design and teaching art, according to an email to the Justice. He has worked with students and planned events at a number of universities. Looking toward his new role, he stressed the importance of learning about Brandeis and its community.

“I plan to spend much of my first year in my role learning as much as I can,” Hicks wrote in the email to the Justice. He elaborated that this would include learning about the Student Activities staff’s strengths and deciding what kinds of activities and events already define the Brandeis experience.

Learning about Brandeis’ campus culture is another goal for his first year, he wrote. Hicks already sees Brandeis as having a “passionate and dedicated community” that he is eager to begin working to strengthen.

To move toward this goal, Hicks expressed his desire to form connections and to collaborate with the University’s students, staff and departments. Hicks hopes that students will find him “accessible and approachable,” and stressed his open-door policy, inviting students to stop by his office or schedule meetings to discuss issues with him.

He explained, “Throughout the next year I want to see what we currently do on campus and listen to feedback from students in order to increase opportunities for involvement for all students.”

Finally, Hicks plans to go beyond leaving his door open. “It’s important to me to be a visible and active participant in the campus community,” he wrote.

Students had an opportunity to meet Hicks at an informal gathering at the Shapiro Campus Center on Friday afternoon.

—Jocelyn Gould